The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1887-05-06

the spray dashed up from the river OF death
The clock strikes "four," and the rosy dawl
soon after begins to look through the lattic
upon the pale form that looks like detaine,
specter OF the night. Soon in q mad house sh
will mistake her ringlets for curling serpents
and thrust her white hand through the bars O
the prison. and smite her head rubbing l
back as though to push the scalp from til,
skull, shrieking: my brain! my brain!" Oh
stand Off from thatl Why win you go sound
ing your way amid the reefs and warning
buoys when there is such vast ocean II
which you may voyage, all sail setl
There is one other thing shall say thil
morning before leave you, whether you
want to hear it or not. That is, that con
slider the lascivious pictorial literature Of the
day as most tremendous for ruin. There d
no one who can nike good pictures better than
] do. The quickest and most condensed way
of impressing the public mind is by picture.
What the painter does by his brush for a few
favorites the engraver does by his knife
for the million. What the author accom-
plishes by fifty pages the artist does by a
flash. The best part Of painting that costs
$4,000 you may buy for ten cents. Fine
paintings belong to the aristocracy Of art.
Engravings belong to the democracy of art.
You do well to gather good pictures in your
homes. Spread them before your children
after the tea hour is past and the evening
circle is gathered. Throw them on the in
valid's couch Strew them through the rail
train to cheer the traveller on his journey.
Tack them ON the wall Of the nursery.
Gather them in albums and portfolios. God
speed the good pictures on their way with
ministries of knowledge and mercy!
But what shall say of the prostitution of
this art to purposes of iniquity. These death
warrants Of the soul are at every street
man with pollution. Many a young man
buying a copy has bought his eternal dis
comflture. There may be enough poison in
one bad picture to poison one SOUL and that
soul may poison ten, and ten fifty, and the
fifty hundreds, and the hundreds thousands,
until nothing but the measuring line OF
eternity can tell the height, and depth, and
ghastliness. and horror Of the great undoing.
The work of death that the wicked author
does in a whole book the bad engraver may
do on half side Of pictorial. Under the
guise of pure mirth, the young man buys one
of these sheets. He unrolls it before his com-
rades amid roars of laughter, but long after
the paper is gone the result may perhaps be
seen in the blasted imaginations of those who
saw 1t. The queen of death holds banquet
every night, and these periodicals are the
printed invitation to her guests. Alas that
the fair brow of American art should be
blotched with this plague spot, and that
bothering themselves about
smaller evils, should! lift up no united and
vehement voice against this great calamity!
Young man, buy not this moral strychnine
for your souli Pick not up this nest of
,oiled adders for your pocketi Patronize no
news stand that keeps theml Have your
room bright with good engravings; but for
;hese outrageous pictorials have not one wall, |
not one bureau, not one pocket. A man is no |
better than the picture he loves to look at.
L your eyes are net pure your heart cannot |
70. At news stand one can guess tho char
lcter Of a man by the kind of pictorial he [
purchases When the devil fails to get a
nan to read bad book he sometimes sue
leeds in getting him to look at bad picture.
When satan goes fishing he does not care
whether it is long line or short line, if he
'nly draws his victim in. Beware of lascivi-
Jus pictorials, young man-in thename of Al
mighty God charge you.
II have this morning successfully laid
lown any principles by which ydA ftcf 5udge
n regard to books and newspapers, then
ave done something Of which shall not be
shamed on the day which shall try every
mans work of what sort it is.
Cherish good books and newspapers. Be-
vare of the bad ones. One column
nay save your soul; one paragraph may
uin it. Benjamin Franklin said that the
sading of Cotton Mather's Essay onlDoing
+ood" nodded his entire life. The assassin of
ord Russell declared that he was led into
rime by reading one vivid romance. The
John Angel James, than whom
ngland never produced better man, de-
AIRED in his old days that he had never yet
Of over the evil effects Of having for fifteen
linutes once read bad book. But / need
OF go so far off. could come near home
nd tell you of something that occurred in
" college days. could tell you of COM
'de who was great hearted, noble and gen.
GUS. He was studying for an honorable
but he had an infldel book in his
unk, and he said to me one day: "De Witt,
Guild you like to read itr' said: eyes, l
ould." took the book and read 1t for only
few minutes. I was really startled with
hat saw there, and l handed the book
ack to him and said: "You had better de-
roy that book" No, he kept it. He read
He reread it. After a while he gave up
lgion as myth. He gave up God
nonentity. He gave up the
ible as a fable. He gave up the
lurch of Christ as useless insti-
tion. He gave up good morals as being
necessarily stringent. I have heard of
IN but twice in many years. The time
fore the last heard of him he was a con-
med inebriate. The last heard of him he
as coming out Of an insane asylum-in
'dy, mind and soul an awful wreck. be-
,ve that one infidel book killed him for two
orlds.
Go home to-day and look through your [
orary, and then, having looked through
,ur library, look on the stand where YOU
Yep your pictorials and newspapers, and
'piy the Christian principles have laid
OWN this morning. II there Is anything in |
our home that cannot stand the test, do not
We it away. for it might spoil an immortal
ul; do not sell it, for the money YOU Get
ould be the price Of blood, but rather kindle I
hre on your kitchen hearth or in your back II
md and then drop the poison in it, and keen !
FIRING the blaze until from preface to an. | /
'ndix there shall not be single paraprsrh In
IT, and the bonfire in Brooklyn shall be as {
'nsuming as chat one in the streets Of :
phesus N'' 'i'fl7' -" :